Replicas recall days of first automobiles

Teche News
Life/Style
They
C
St. Martinville, LA - Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The headlight on the Ford (as
well as the Olds) was nothing
more than a specially designed
oil lamp.
don’t
do
make them
like that anymore
Replicas recall days of first automobiles
Stepping inside Lee Roy Thevenet’s Grand Anse workshop is not unlike going into a car museum. Three
gleaming antique automobiles take up most of the
space: two pre-1920 horseless carriages and a 1956
Chevy.
Looks are often deceiving though, especially to the
inexperienced eye, and it would take an expert to realize
that the first two are
replicas, the last the genuine article.
The Chevy was inherited from an uncle in Little Rock,
Ark., in 2003 and scrupulously restored to showroom
condition after years of neglect says Thevenet, who
describes himself as “semi-retired. I still do a little bit of
work in metal roofing and patio covers and so forth. I
retired from 30 years in automotive and worked on just
about any kind of car you can imagine. It's always been
a big interest to me.”
The replica cars — a Curved Dash Oldsmobile
Runabout and one of Ford’s earliest models from the
NRS series — are the result of a unique and exacting
hobby that started in 2004 during a trip with wife Elaine
to the Church Point Buggy Festival parade.
“A gentleman from Kaplan was there with a replica
[car] that he had built in his home workshop. I thought
it was an original … I asked him ‘Where did you get your
car?’ And he started telling me it was a replica and I
asked him ‘Is this a kit?’ And he said ‘No, I built it in my
home workshop.’ It kind of lit a fire under me.”
After doing research on his computer, Thevenet joined
the Curved Dash Oldsmobile Club of America and contacted its president about obtaining drawings of the car,
manufactured for seven years beginning in 1901.
“From the blueprints and drawings he sent me, I built
my little car, then I took measurements off my little car,
made a set of plans and we now have two Web sites on
the Internet, one for the curved dash and one for the
NRS Fords with free plans available for anybody who
wants to download them. And there are several people
across the United States building their own off of mine.
It’s pretty interesting.”
Remarkable for the craftsmanship and attention to
detail involved, the
two replicas are quaintly sleek convertibles from a time
when just going down the road was an event unto itself
requiring a heavy duster, cap and goggles for protection
from the dust.
Mass Production
The Curved Dash Oldsmobile Runabout was the first
mass-produced automobile in the world, the first used
by the U.S. postal service, and the first project to emerge
from Thevenet’s workshop.
“Mr. Olds had the first assembly line in the United
States. Most people think Ford was the first, but Ford
had the first mechanized assembly line. What Olds
would do was, his workers would push the car from one
station to the next station in assembly. Whereas Ford, it
was on a conveyor belt, or a track.”
Everything on the Curved Dash Oldsmobile — including its wood body — was made on the site at Thevenet’s
shop.
“The only
thing I have to job out is when I have
some heavy machine work. Like on the end, I have to job
out some work on the differential on the back … that’s
the only thing that's costly. That, and the upholstery.
Brian Theriot of Theriot’s Upholstery did it for me, he
did a fantastic job on both.
“The rear end came off a Kawasaki three-wheeler. I
had to cut and extend the axle, add a piece of housing
to it. The wheels are from Honda dirt bikes. The springs
came off a Dodge Chrysler product, re-arched. The front
axle and everything else was manufactured here in my
shop.”
What would have been the rear passenger compartment in the original Olds houses the car’s transmission,
battery and gas tank. The car’s engine is in front, under
the seat.
“I've got more horsepower in the curved dash Olds
than the original car. The original had something like
five horsepower. The one I’ve got has a lawnmower
engine, which is about 181⁄2 power. I cannibalized the
transmission out of another riding mower, which is
hydrostat, which gives me an automatic transmission,
more or less.”
Another unusual feature of the Curved Dash
Oldsmobile, besides the tiller used for steering, are its
wire-spoke wheels.
“Mr. Olds, just like Mr. Ford, went through several
wheel manufacturers. And they had good luck and bad
luck with their wheels.
When the Runabout first came out in 1901, it had spoke
wheels like the bicycle. Those were the wheels they had
back then because they didn’t build any cars in the
United States before then.”
Thevenet’s Runabout would take a year to complete,
and was ready in time for its first official public viewing,
at the Church Point Buggy Festival parade. Sandwiched
between a Mustang carrying the festival queen and a
horse-drawn carriage, Thevenet says that every time the
Mustang stopped to toss trinkets at the crowd, the horse
behind snorted down his neck.
“That year fortunately they were giving an award for
the oldest antique car and we walked away with the
award. My wife was just tickled to death, and so she
said, ‘When are you going to build another?’ I said ‘As
soon as we get back home.’”
The Ford NRS replica
during its early stages
of construction in Lee
Roy
Thevenet’s
Grand Anse workshop.
Thevenet sits at the wheel of the Ford
while details or the slightly older
Oldsmobile are visible in the foreground.
The next replica to come off of Thevenet’s planning table was an early Ford.
Prior to Henry Ford's breakthrough with the enormously popular Model
T, he built cars for nearly every letter in the alphabet.
“The one that I built is one of the three that preceded
the T, the NRS series. The same frame is used for the
three vehicles, so I had a choice of three bodies that I
could install on top of that one frame. If I ever decide to
built another one, it would probably be one of the other
two. It’d be less costly for me because I’ve already got
the
frame, the wheels, and everything else. So all I have to
do is just build another body.”
After researching the cars on the Internet, he took a
trip to a Texas car museum displaying an original.
“The owner of the museum allowed me to go behind
the ropes to get what measurements I needed. That, in
conjunction with the blueprints I got, and I was able to
do what I had to do.”
Though it came onto the market only a few years after
the Oldsmobile Runabout’s debut, the cream-and-brown
Ford replica seems light-years ahead of its more formal
companion, much closer to one’s perception of what an
early automobile looked like.
“I try and get the outside as original-looking as
humanly possible,” Thevenet explains, pointing out that
the crank is just for show — the car actually has an
electric starter. “The radiator I built myself out of plywood covered with brass. The brass comes from S.J.
Guidry of Sid’s Radiator.”
But the ornate carriage lamps, bought off eBay and
forerunners of today's supercharged headlights, are orig-
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The hand crank
on the side of the
Olds is an exact
replica, but is not
functional since
the replica contains an 18.5 hp
lawnmower
engine.
inal to the period and make of the car. As
are the wood spokes in its wheels; nearly
a century old, they once helped a 1911
Model T tool around dusty Texas streets. And
the minuscule brass hubcaps bearing the Ford
logo, purchased from Lang’s Old Car Parts.
While the Curved Dash Oldsmobile’s riding
mower engine gives it a top speed of 8-10 mph,
the replica Ford’s, which in its former life powered a
Honda Big Red three-wheeler, has a possibility of 25.
One noteworthy advantage the replica Ford has over the
original is that it’s a lot safer.
“The (original) car would remain relatively cool while it
was running. But then after you'd shut it down a lot of
times it would boil over. Normally as long as the car was
running and you were rolling, you had enough air to
keep it cool.”
The most time-consuming part of building a replica
car is the manufacturing of myriad individual parts.
“Everything you see — the fender irons — everything
had to be built individually. I bought a roller and rolled
my own beads on the thing. This is material that I got
from Cajun Specialties that's normally
used in building. Eighteen-inch galvanized. And my wife
helped me and we rolled the beads after we cut them
out.”
His is a hobby he believes more people would become
involved with if they only knew about it.
“A lot of people around here like to do things with
their hands, are retired, and a lot of people are interested in cars … We here in Louisiana, it's almost a party
place, you know? We have festivals and parades. I can't
think of a better way to go to a festival than to drive in a
parade and be part of it.
“There is a movement in the United States, mainly
because there’s not enough antique cars — originals —
sold, you know? And when they do sell them it’s at such
a price, the average person can't touch it. When you go
and spend $50-60,000 on an antique car and you have
to keep it in a building year-round, and the only time
you’re going to use it is parades and outings, that's too
much money invested.”
The Curved Dash Oldsmobile cost approximately
$2,500 to build; the NRS Ford, about $3,000.
Though the longest distance he’s driven to date was a
two-mile parade route, he hopes to see that change as
the hobby continues to grow in popularity. There are
several groups around the country who participate regularly in 120-mile tours made in their replica cars in
much the same way that horse and wagon trail rides are
held in this area.
“One thing I’d love to do is inspire enough people
around here to get interested in stuff like this where we
could put together something like that. Right now the
only thing we have is auto shows for 1955, ’56
Chevys, hot rods, ’32 Fords, all the cars we were raised
up with.
“But these cars came from an era that was way before
our time. And it’s just fascinating to see how they’re
built and put together. Basically the same way they put
them together back in those days.”
Thevenet’s plans for both replica cars are available for
download from these two websites:
groups.yahoo.com/group/CurvedDashOldsmobile/ or
groups.yahoo.com/group/HorselessCarriageReplicas/.
by Kevin Scrantz
Graphic Design by Melissa L. Bearb Landry
Lee Roy Thevenet
takes Kevin Scrantz
for a spin in the
Curved Dash
Oldsmobile replica.
Steering was via a
tiller rather than a
wheel and, of course,
there was no windshield.
You’d have
to look very
closely to
tell that this
is not an
original
Model NRS
Ford.